Saturday, 8 March 2014

Day 58: Mid-term time

What went well?

Worked on my sociology of education mid-term (50%) all day (this is my #focus weekend since I'm away Monday-Saturday next week doing fun stuff), but had company while doing it with a friend who was doing research/programming at the Positive Psychology Center. It was definitely nice to at last get out of the dorm and have someone to have lunch with and watch random videos during breaks.

At the same time, I had a very productive day and got all the notes ready to write up tomorrow.

I still think RescueTime is pretty neat.

But also managed to get down to Charlie's Jeans in Old City and buy a new pair of jeans because both my current pairs have holes :( This was a very efficient trip though - I was in and out within 10 minutes because the sales assistant knew what she was doing and I am trying to be more of a satisficer (good enough!) than a maximiser (looking for the best! decision fatigue!) when it comes to things that don't really matter.

Found out what I'll be singing for Opera Scenes - a duet from Monteverdi's Poppea: Pur ti miro. It's simple, but I think it's still really beautiful and we can do a lot with it, especially with infusing it with rapture and tenderness.

What did I learn?

My friend at the PPC shared an app they're still testing at the moment with me, which is a natural language analysis thing where you enter at least 500 words of text you've written, and it predicts your age, gender, and personality! I decided to enter all 63 entires of my blog (including the pre-departure posts) into the box...and well, the tool was pretty far off for all of these variables, but here it is:

So apparently, I'm nearly 29 years old, slightly more male than female, and pretty much an introvert. Haha. I'd say I'm also a little higher in conscientiousness and (I'd like to think, anyway!) agreeableness. It's a fun idea though, that we could actually predict these things based on the language someone uses.

A word cloud of exchange so far...

Also, since I'd copied all that text from my blog, I thought I may as well word cloud it:

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What's this blog about?

Hi! I'm Jessie, in my final year of my BA (Psychology) at the University of Melbourne. But before I finish up there, I'm heading off on exchange at the University of Pennsylvania (hence the name of the blog - Daily Pennings, haha) for a semester. So there are two main reasons why this blog exists: For others, and for myself.This blog exists so that my friends and family can see what I'm up to if they're curious. I also hope that it can serve as a resource for other students who are considering an exchange (or a degree) at Penn, in terms of the culture of the school and the US, and the practicalities of being abroad.Essentially, though, this blog will serve as a public journal. I plan to spend just 10 minutes at the end of each day writing a quick, simple summary of the day, including highlights and something I learned. This way, it'll be an accurate reflection of what actually happened on exchange, and it will also encourage me to reflect daily, which to me is important for self-awareness and living consciously, and therefore making the most of the exchange (and life), hopefully.If you find anything here interesting or useful, or if you're curious about anything, please leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you! :)

About Me

I am motivated by the potential for psychological research to generate rigorous, reproducible insights on human flourishing. My research interests fall broadly within two themes: (1) the processes that link personality with well-being, in the moment and across the lifespan, and (2) the motivating effects of moral emotions (e.g., gratitude, compassion, elevation) on prosocial behaviours.